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You may find it hard to believe - but bankers are honest at heart.

A study found that employees of a large international bank were fundamentally truthful. 

However, thoughts about their job led to them starting to lie.

The Swiss researchers said that rather than dishonest people going into banking, it seems that the materialism of the industry - including the lure of lucrative bonuses - leads to people lying and cheating.

Researchers from the University of Zurich found that rather than dishonest people going into banking, it seems that the materialism of the industry - including the lure of lucrative bonuses - leads to people lying and cheating (stock image)

They said that banks, which have been rocked by scandals from rogue trading to interest rate fixing, need to address the issue if public trust in them is to be restored.

The team from the University of Zurich split more than 200 bank workers into two groups and asked them a series of questions.

One group answered questions about their hobbies, while members of the second where quizzed about their job.

They then took part in a coin-tossing game designed to assess honesty.

They were then given a coin to toss in private and told they would win £13 each time it landed a certain way.

Finally, they were asked to report how many of the ten tosses landed the winning way up.

Those asked about their hobbies said they had made a winning throw roughly half the time – as would be expected though chance.

However, the men and women who had focused on their jobs claimed to have flipped a winning heads or tails much more often.

In all, a quarter of those thought about their work cheated, the journal Science reports.

Importantly, non-bankers didn't become less honest when made to think about their jobs.

Further experiments showed the bank workers' dishonesty wasn't driven by fear of competition.

Instead, materialistic values seemed to be to blame.

Those who were made to think about their jobs were more likely to say that wealth is key to social status and success.

Researchers asked two groups of bank workers questions about either their hobbies, or their job. Each person was then asked to privately toss a coin and were told they'd win £13 each time it landed a certain way. The men and women who had focused on their jobs claimed to have flipped a winning toss much more often

And those who were the most materialistic were the most likely to cheat.

The researchers said: 'Our results suggest that the prevailing business culture in the banking industry favours dishonesty behaviour and thus has contributed to the loss of the industry's reputation.'

They suggested that measures such as a Hippocratic oath for bankers could help restore public confidence in the sector.

However, there is some way to go.

A further experiment by the same team showed that the public view bankers to be even less honest than prisoners.